Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always one of my favorite days of the whole year, but this one was especially good. First of all, there was this fiery sky, and lots of wind, which we knew was bringing in a snowstorm. Very anticipatory.

The remnants of the roll party. Unfortunately, I never get pictures of it when it's in full swing. But it's such a happy, busy, crazy morning. I love having the house full of people and the smell of things baking and wassail on the stove. I made 21 dozen butterscotch rolls and this is what was left: 18 lonely little bundles. Well, don't feel bad for them; they weren't lonely for long.

I love our snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. And please note the carved Santa spoons on your right. I love them too: they are treasured possessions I have gotten from the ornament party. Now that there is a big one and a tiny one, Daisy's life is complete. As for what is happening on the couch over there…I just don't know.

Dinner by candlelight. Chicken tacos this year.

 Everything was so exciting! Lots of happy, silly faces.

And this little Goldie! She was maybe the most excited of all. She had no idea what was going on, but did that stop her? It did not.

So wild and rosy! I could NOT get a picture of her that wasn't blurry. She was in constant motion.

Well, I guess there was this picture.

I looked over and Sam was suddenly…populated.

Sam always plans "Elf Olympics" for us on Christmas Eve. The competition can become quite fierce. This year my favorite game was one where we had to draw plans for toys based on North Pole Focus Group testing. The requirements were things like "a fire truck that can wear a dress" and "a toy monster-bunny: it must be both huggable and terrifying." Another game involved dropping popcorn off the balcony into each others' mouths. Everyone was, frankly, terrible at this. It was wildly popular anyway. It didn't take more than a couple minutes for Goldie to figure out what was going on, and join in:

What a happy Christmas Eve!